Nevada to add thousands to sex offender registry

In 2007 the Nevada state legislature passed a law to bring it’s state into compliance with the 2006 Adam Walsh Act. In the almost decade that has since followed, several low level offenders remained off the public registry as a lawsuit brought by a couple of dozen of those offenders progressed through the courts.

This year, however, the Nevada Supreme Court denied their petition and now the state is preparing to add them to the public registry.

State Sen. Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas, said the public notification will be “tragic for thousands of otherwise law-abiding Nevadans.” Many may have pleaded guilty to a crime decades ago, he noted.

“Now all of a sudden they’re going to have their photo on the internet,” Segerblom said. “People who are well established in their communities, with children and grandchildren, who’ve led otherwise exemplary lives.”

The Senator, who was quoted in this article also stated that Nevada, like other states, was pressured to pass the law in 2007 under threat of losing federal grant money. “What’s happened, other states have since passed much less egregious laws and they still get federal funding,” he said.